Machines, boxes and holes

This exciting image is what I've been tackling this evening.  The spreadsheet was provided by the ever brilliant Kuba (project designer/strawbale consultant extraordinaire), for me to colour in the boxes.  A coloured box indicates a chunk of time when a bit of the build should be happening.  Piecing it together is a bit mind-melting but it is good to start to visualise the work involved, and see a potential progression from sitting here thinking about building to eventually finishing building and moving in!  That final objective is a long way off yet, but the chart is equally useful for knowing when to start, what with, what to do next, and what needs to happen before other things can happen.  It seems traditional in any build to get ridiculously behind schedule, so now we have a schedule we can follow that tradition with vigour.

Some dates will have to be stuck to, and will provide target points (or probably more accurately: panic points).  The March/April restriction on roof works (see Of Bats and Bureaucracy) is the first (impending) one of these, and the planned dates for running strawbale courses is another.

Before we can can start the roof works we need the structural engineers (the very helpful and practical Structural Solutions, see their slick new website here) to sign off the changes and give us the details of the structures we need to put in to support the roof, enabling us to open the main living space up through the loft.  They made a site visit the other day, crawled about in the loft and in the test pits I've dug in the garden (they also need to assess how deep our foundations need to be, based on soil type and loading etc. Soil samples are being analysed as I type).  Thankfully, it sounds like what we need to do to the roof is actually very straightforward, and will result in a strong but much simplified structure.  I like simple.  The biggest practical problem will be how to get a new continuous roof beam into the loft space to support the weight of the roof.  Somehow this will have to be manhandled and fed in there, so it's in place before we even think about cutting out the three roof trusses which currently take the load.

The planned dates for the Strawbale courses are: two courses between 23rd July and 5th August.  I'll post details of these once they're more sorted.  This gives me enough time to get everything in place first - there is much to do.  Foundations need to be dug and plinth walls built to support the bales, both for the extension and the wrap; new doorways connecting existing bungalow to extension need to be cut, carpentry around the window openings needs to be in place to support the windows in their new position in the wrap; the roof needs to be extended to cover the bale wrap; the timbers for the extension roof need to be cut and ready to assemble as soon as the walls are up.  Once the walls are up we will then have to work quickly to get them prepared for the lime render, and then get the lime render on.  This needs to happen really by the end of August, in order for it to have time to cure and harden fully before any chance of frost.

It's going to be a busy year...

In the meantime I've been sorting out the fence at the bottom of the garden.  We sort of made a deal with the neighbour at the back that he'd cut his over-height hedge down to size and we'd put up a good fence.  He has halved the height of the hedge so we now have much more sunlight in the garden, which is fantastic.  I had to keep my end of the deal, so this was my viewpoint for a couple of days last week, as I hired a lovely auger machine to help me dig all the bloomin' post holes:

I still had to hack through many a tree root by hand with a sharpened spade, but the Auger saved my back.  It also helped drag a random lump of concrete out of the way, which I found after clearing the bramble thicket from the corner of the garden:

A rare perfectly straight, major-root-free hole

Tight fit.  Had to take the door off to get it through.  The garden gateway is 3cm too narrow, so this was the only way.

Uncovering old garden detailing (and more space!)

Need to get hold of a garden shredder now...

Preparation and more bureaucracy

Twelve days on from receiving  planning permission I feel like things are starting to move in the right direction.  I'm swinging from excited to terrified, but I suspect that will be the way of things for much of the year to come.  Now in a whirlwind of emails, phone-calls, site visits and general attempts to get everything in place practically and bureaucratically to start in March.  For example, today's magical mystery tour combination of bureaucracy and practicality has involved lifting manholes to photograph the drains and work out where they go and phone-calls to the dramatically titled Sewer Protection Team at Wessex Water, in order to determine whether the drain is classified as a private or public sewer.  Thankfully, as it only serves our bungalow and is on our land it's still private which means that one big bundle of added (and expensive) paperwork is avoided.  Any work over - or within 3 metres of - a public sewer would need permission from the relevant sewage authority, which in Wessex Water's case has a £225 fee attached.  (NB: a private sewer now becomes a "public" one once it leaves your land, so work needs to be more than 3 metres away from the point it crossed the boundary... ours is around 4.5 metres from that point so we're okay).

On the planning front, Kuba - the designer - (www.jakubwihan.com) is starting work on the detailed drawings for building regulation approval.  We've appointed JHAI as our independent building inspector for building control - they're local (based 5 miles away), have experience of other sustainable builds and materials including strawbale, and have a good reputation for helpfulness.  For SAP Assessment (Standard Assessment Procedure for energy rating of dwellings, taking into account all energy usage from heating, lighting, hot water etc, the sources of energy used, and the relevant CO2 emissions) we've chosen Phil Neve of Brilliant Futures who is based just south of Bristol - as well as doing the relevant calculations to ensure compliance with Part L of Building Regs (which deal with the conservation of heat and power) he will help us ensure we are building something that will be as efficient as we can make it, keeping our energy use (and operational costs) as low as possible.

Kuba is also going to help me prepare a sensible schedule of works.  Having a list of what order things need to happen in and roughly when will be enormously useful to me and help prevent me becoming overwhelmed before we even begin.

I'm awaiting quotes from ground-workers and a builder who may do the digging of the foundations, drains and the hole for the rainwater harvesting tank, possibly also building the basic foundations.  I have spoken to a roofing carpenter who advertised "assisted selfbuild" among his services - he seems likely to be the ideal person to work with on the roof, as he is geared up for "green" builds and understands what we are trying to do.  Plus he's friendly and I think I would feel comfortable working alongside him under his direction (I have built basic kiln-shed roofs, but would definitely benefit from expert direction with the bungalow roof).  Decisions on all these will be made once quotes are in.

Almost inevitably we have already come across some changes that will need to be made to the plans as approved, some as a result of consultation with a structural engineer, some just from realising better ways of doing things.  Rather than re-use an existing chimney which isn't quite in the right place we will probably now remove it, claiming back more space and having a more practical steel flue rising directly from the masonry stove (more about masonry stoves in some future blog, but in brief: they're lovely, incredibly efficient, brick-built, giant wood-fuelled storage heaters.  Go google them).  The ceiling in the lounge/kitchen area where we're taking the room through the loft to roof-height will now slope evenly both sides rather than having a slightly odd floating wall part-way through the room (see image below, culled from the plans - new proposal at the top): this should look nicer, will be structurally simpler, and will allow a much greater spread of light from the new rooflights (which will now be slightly lower in the roof).  Finally, we're swapping around the position of Anna's studio and the separate toilet, so that the loo is next to our bedroom.  We should have thought of this earlier - with Anna's limited mobility it can be a struggle to get to the loo at night, so having it next to the bedroom makes perfect sense, and it would have been so frustrating to have made an otherwise lovely home with a long wobbly walk to the toilet from the bedroom.  It's original position was a hangover from when we still planned to have a massage treatment room.  From the outside, this means a couple of windows will be further along a wall than they were.

All those changes now need to be formalised with the planning authority, as (very sensibly) condition of the planning permission is that we build according to the plans submitted.  So now we have to submit new drawings showing the new position of the windows and chimney and apply for a "non-material amendment".  The ever-helpful planning officer said it shouldn't be a problem, and the process for that is meant to be much faster than planning permission itself.  The changes to the lounge/kitchen ceiling may mean we have to adapt and re-submit our Bat Mitigation Plan too as it affects the area of loft available to any bats that should decide to take up residence there.  They'll get less swooping around space but more roosting space.  The ecologist responsible for our plan will consult with the Natural Environment Team and see what they say.

How Disabilty Living Allowance helps

Back to the Welfare Reform Bill today, and in particular the changes to Disability Living Allowance (DLA).  This benefit (which is not an out-of-work benefit: in many cases it helps people stay in work, or in my case as a carer it helps provide things for Anna which enable me to leave the house to work myself) provides money to help disabled people with the extra costs of care and mobility.

It is estimated that only 0.5% of DLA claims are fraudulent; the government plans to reduce spending on DLA by 20%.  It is unavoidable that this will mean removing the benefit from some who have genuine and serious need of it.  The basic way that reduction in the number of claimants will be achieved is by changes in the assessment criteria, to make it harder to qualify.  For example, under the Personal Independence Payment/PIP (which will replace DLA), if a person can walk up to 50 metres, even if they can only walk up to 50 metres with the use of aids (including a walking frame) they will only qualify for the lower rate of mobility assistance.  This ignores the very high cost of all specialist mobility equipment; more importantly it fails to provide for the large number of people who might just make it 50 metres using aids but would require a wheelchair to go further than this.  Many would require an electric wheelchair or someone to push them beyond 50 metres - both options which entail very cost.

There are many more examples, but these are described better elsewhere.  For a good starting point see this article in the Guardian, or this article in the Daily Mail.  For further reading see this blog.  Links to the Responsible Reform report are at the bottom of my last post on DLA changes.

The campaign rallying around the Responsible Reform report (online and on twitter under #spartacusreport) is not asking for disability benefits to remain exactly as they are.  We recognise that reform is needed.  But as the report title suggests reform needs to be genuinely responsible.  The urgent aim is to have the legislation paused for 6 months so that the changes can be implemented sensibly and without causing harm to those most in need.  Please sign this petition calling for just that: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968. Anybody wanting to support further can contact their MP or Lords to ask them to call for a pause and to support positive amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill.  See here: http://www.mind.org.uk/blog/6275_tweet_to_defeat_new_pip_will_fail_people_with_mental_health_problems

Today disabled people and their carers are stating the positive effect DLA support has on their lives, and what they will lose if that support is withdrawn.  These can be found on twitter under #spartacusstories or collated here on a blog: http://spartacus-stories.blogspot.com/

Here is Anna's (my wife's) comment on the support she receives via DLA:

My DLA money helps me in many different ways. I suffer from both physical illness and mental illness, which makes these things even more important (fibromyalgia, arthritis of neck and lumbar spine, chronic pain, bipolar disorder).  The different conditions often trigger the symptoms of each other. Below are a few of the ways DLA helps me.

Care:  it enables me to pay for help twice a week with changing, showering and dressing at the local sport centre when I attend disabled swimming lessons.  Without this help I get stuck in my clothing and fall over a lot.  It also helps when my husband is away as he is my main carer.  Enables me to be able to pay for private counseling as I have reached the limit I’m aloud on the NHS.  This helps me keep anxiety in check and helps me regulate manicness.  It helps buy microwave ready meals for when my husband is away, or is working at mealtimes, so that I can still eat; these are expensive as I have to eat ‘free-from’ wheat and dairy-free foods.

Equipment:  it helped me be able to buy my walker, wheelchair and mobility scooter.  None of which are cheap.  All of this equipment allows me to be more independent and covers all areas that I need help with my mobility.  Wetsuit and other thermal clothing to wear to keep me warm when in the pool, to prevent muscle spasms and increased pain.

Exercise:  it enables me to pay for disabled swimming lesson and hydrotherapy classes, both of which are vital to keep me at a basic functioning physical level.  I also gain a lot socially from this as our group has many different disabilities, we are all able to understand what each other is going through and have developed a supportive bond as we see each other twice a week

And the answer is...

Back to the strawbale side of things for this blog, though I hope to post a follow on to my last blog about the Welfare Reform Bill and its potentially disastrous effect on disabled people through changes to Disabilty Living Allowance (and more) later today.  Much has been happening on that front, but in the meantime I refer you to this article in the Guardian which sums up much of current issues, and these blogs by two of the primary instigators of the Responsible Reform report: diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/ and benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/  Please do have a read - the changes (and trying to stop them) are incredibly important to many disabled and chronically ill people who will be very negatively affected by the current plans.

But back to Anna, me and our plans to super-insulate and extend an existing bungalow using strawbales, lime render and a bit of green-roof.  The planning application Decision Notice was issued yesterday (exactly on schedule for the day they said they would let us know by) - nothing came in the post today but by this morning the District Council planning website had been updated with the decision so we downloaded the letter instead.  And the decision is:

YES!


We have planning permission! This hasn't entirely sunk in yet.  There was no mad jumping around with joy from me, more a bewildered wave of "okay, now lots of stuff needs to happen, doesn't it? Not sure what this really mean".  The bewilderment has worn off a bit now and allowed excitement to creep in a bit, though the "oh my god, now I need to do an enormous number of things very quickly" feeling has also ratcheted up a few notches.  This, I believe, is sensible as it is in fact true...

Overwhelming consultation responses to DLA changes ignored

Today's blog is very much removed from my usual topics, but it is about something that is extremely important, concerning changes to disability benefits.  As someone sensible pointed out on twitter yesterday "anything that concerns 'disabled' should concern anyone that might become disabled - i.e. everyone".  My connection to the issues is as carer and husband to Anna who receives DLA to help with disability resulting from Fibromyalgia, ME, Bipolar Disorder, Arthritis and a host of associated conditions.

The coalition government recently proposed wholesale reform of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and other benefits that provide essential support to disabled people to help them with the extra costs involved in mobility and care, both of which can be incredibly expensive.  DLA is not an 'out-of-work' benefit and in many cases the support it provides can help disabled people remain in work.

The Responsible Reform researchers used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain more than 500 responses to the consultation that were submitted by disabled people’s organisations, disability charities and other groups and have carried out the first detailed, independent analysis of those responses

The report (referred to as #spartacusreport on twitter) finds that Government misled MPs and Peers over the hostility to disability benefit reform. It finds that Parliament has been given only a partial view of the overwhelming opposition to the Coalition’s planned reforms of Disability Living Allowance.  This opposition was previously not released to public scrutiny by the Government

Findings included:

* 98 per cent of respondents objected to the qualifying period for benefits being raised from 3 months to 6 months
* 99 per cent of respondents objected to Disability Living Allowance no longer being used as a qualification for other benefits
* 92% opposed removing the lowest rate of support for disabled people

Why not just fill the cavity, then?

When I've explained our plans to wrap a bungalow in strawbales (even when I just say "externally insulate it") a number of people have asked why we don't just fill the cavity to insulate it.  It's becoming quite irritating, but that's my problem not anyone elses.  It does deserve a proper answer, which sort of serves as an example of what's wrong with general standard construction too.

The rented bungalow we currently live in does have insulated wall-cavities, and around 35cm depth of glass-fibre-blanket loft insulation (albeit poorly fitted with lots of gaps between rolls and an area in the centre with no extra blanket at all, apparently to leave the existing boarded area free for storage).  The windows are all double glazed (more on them later).  So it should be nice and warm and efficient to heat, then?

Nope.

In winter it gets cold very quickly once the heating goes off (ie: the heat escapes quickly through the walls, window, roof and the cold uninsulated floors).  In summer it gets very hot when the sun is on the building.  According to our latest gas bill (we have no gas cooker so our gas use is only for heating and hot water) our average daily usage for the last 3 months is 38kwh.  According to Which that's about average for non-condensing boilers, equalling a yearly bill of £760 in our case.  That will increase as it gets colder though.  It's been unusually warm lately; we used much more gas this time last year when it was so much colder.

Planning permission progress report

Yesterday we got official confirmation that our planning application has been received and registered.  The full details (all 20 documents of application 1/D/11/001941...) are now available for viewing and comment on the council's website (apart from brief down-time for maintenance this weekend).  So it's passed the bureaucratic hurdle of validation, has been allocated a case officer, and things are moving along.  The planning officer allocated to the case should be making a site visit shortly (I still don't know whether or not we show them around or whether they just go and have a look from the street). The application is open for comments until 23rd December, so with luck we should get a decision early in the new year (they say we should hear by 12th January 2012).  Keeping fingers crossed.

Are free solar panel offers any good?

There's nothing exciting to report about the bungalow plans; our planning application has been given a reference number by the district council but not yet allocated a case officer.  If we get any real news I'll report it here...

So here's a relevant if slightly tangential blog about the merits or otherwise of the increasing number of free solar panel offers - companies offering to install photovoltaic solar panels for free on your roof, in theory giving you the benefit of free electricity.  I keep coming across these and a few people have asked me about them.  Sparked by the latest request for comment (specifically about these people: A Shade Greener) I found myself giving a rambling answer and thought I'd try and edit it into more coherent form to post here.

The free solar companies finance the panels they fit by using the Feed-in-Tariff/FIT (for more about the FIT and planned changes to it please see here: Solar Rush; or for more general FIT info this site is useful - http://www.fitariffs.co.uk/FITs/).  The FIT is in two parts: payment for all electricity produced by your solar panels - even that which you use yourself, and a bonus payment for electricity you don't use that gets exported to the grid.

On top of that there should be a saving on your electricity bill when you use electricity from the panels rather than importing it from the grid.

My understanding is that the free panel companies install and own the panels and receive both parts of the FIT. You get any saving from using power generated on your roof.  This can be worthwhile but it depends on how you manage your electricity use.

Planning application is in!

Wahoo - planning application is officially submitted!  Before it gets looked at properly by the planning officers it needs to be validated - checked to see if we have submitted everything required in exactly the right format.  I have tried really hard to make sure we have done everything correctly, but I've found it hard to know in advance exactly what all the information specifications are.  I highly recommend anyone applying for planning permission to start filling in the forms online (at www.planningportal.gov.uk) ahead of time - partly because it's time consuming, and partly because other requirements are made apparent as you go.  For example, we need to cut down one non-native tree which has been planted far too close to the existing bungalow: it's not enough to just mark this on the plans with a note that it needs to be removed, you have to label it and any other affected trees T1, T2 etc, and list this reference and the reference number of the plan that shows it in the right box on the planning application forms...

Other information about the required format of plans is more straightforwardly available, to be fair.  It's just important to make sure you follow the guidelines strictly (it's hard to know how accurate they are but there are plenty of stories on the web of applications failing to be validated due to minor technicalities).

But anyway, it's in, fingers crossed/touch wood it'll be validated, then we wait to see what the planners think.  They said at my last meeting with them that they'd probably need to make a site visit, so I guess that's the next thing in line.

Solar Rush

Our plans for planning application are virtually complete and now only lack details of solar photovoltaic/electric (PV) panels, and solar thermal (hot-water) panels on the south-southwest facing rear roof.  We will definitely install solar thermal panels to provide around 60% of our annual hot-water needs.  This is easier to plan as the panels are a fairly standard size.  We hope to also install PV panels, but this depends on the amount that can fit on the roof and the potential output of the system balanced against the cost.  As the sizing of PV panels is much less standard and the calculation of output and which panels to use in what configuration around roof-windows is much more complex, we need this information from solar installers.  Two local firms have agreed to provide a quote including all the relevant information, enabling us to reach a decision and - if we decide to go ahead - to include accurate details of solar installation on our plans for planning permission.

Of bats and bureacracy, Part 2

Brief summary of Part 1: the bat man checked for bats and found bat poo indicative of one bat, but couldn't rule out the possibility of there being more bats hidden between the felt and the tiles of the roof.  He then wrote us a bat plan which received the necessary approval from the bat people at Dorset County Council, once we'd resolved a few glitches (they initially failed to read the plans properly).

The bat plan (Dorset Bat Mitigation Plan/DBMP) sets out an approach to roof works that will minimise any potential disruption to bats.  Although the plan describes "a bat roost of low conservation significance", we have to act as though there may be more bats roosting in the space between the roofing felt and the concrete roof-tiles, just in case.  Had we known earlier about the need for a Bat Survey we could have carried out emergence surveys - checking at dusk to see how many bats emerge from the roof - and based the Bat Plan on more specific information.  Sadly, it was already October by the time we knew a survey was needed and at this time of year the bats aren't active in that way.  I'm not sure what they are doing, but it isn't flying in and out of roof roosts.

Of bats and bureaucracy, part 1

The last week or so has been a flurry of fairly stressful activity.  I haven't felt so stressed about the project at any point so far.  Thankfully as a result we now have nearly everything in place to finally submit our planning application.  I hoped to have done that by now, and as I'll explain one of the reasons for the recent activity also makes it more urgent than ever to submit the plans as soon as possible.  Urgh.

I went to see the planning officer again with the virtually complete plans (previously I'd only shown them my own computer mock-ups of possible designs, rather than the actual accurate plans).  The planning officer didn't really have much to add this time, having already commented on the basic principles of the project (and broadly approved - see Elevated Greenery), but she did add that we'd need a Bat Survey before we could submit our application.  Despite my best efforts to find out what additional information we needed to accompany the application this annoyingly hadn't shown up in any lists on the Dorset For You website or the Planning Portal site.  The Dorset website is so convoluted that I can't guarantee it's not on there somewhere in the depths but certainly not anywhere obvious.  The Planning Portal ("the UK Government's online planning and building regulations resource") does have a lot of information, but when it comes to local information requirements it just says that pull-down lists will show what you need when actually submitting a planning application online.  That's not much use in advance.

Design and Access Statement?

Below is a draft Design and Access Statement (DAS) to accompany our planning application.  It now appears we may not be required to submit one as the regulations have changed since the guidance I've been using was issued.  If nothing else I hope it provides a pretty good summing up of our plans and the reasoning behind them.

The property is in an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty which used to require a DAS for householder applications, but now it's unclear.  I'm sure the planning officer I'm meeting tomorrow will be able to tell me.  In any case, our project is unusual compared to standard applications for building an extension so it may help to submit the DAS by way of explanation.  Any comments from anyone used to dealing with things very gratefully received!  I'm sure it's too long for starters, despite a fair bit of editing down.

No more pink

I'm feeling very fuzzy headed but pleased, having just finished extensive 'artists impression' of the bungalow design and its position in the street, mostly to show neighbours when we go to talk to them about our plans this week, but it might help planning application too (to illustrate the proper plans).  This is a north elevation image capture (without the front garden and street) from the 3D model.

After a gentle nudge in the right direction from Kuba (designer) we've decided to go with plain lime render for the exterior of the strawbale sections, and are hoping the planners go for it.  We think it looks a darn site better than any 'brick-coloured' pinkish paint.  The render we're likely to use is a lime render made up using crushed recycled glass instead of sand, which we like the look of.  Much less energy is needed to collect and crush glass bottles than to extract new sand for use in the render.

I'm taking the plans and my Sketchup file/image captures to see the planning officer on Friday, hopefully (touch wood, if they don't want us to change too much) it'll be the last face to face with them before actually submitting planning application soon.  Just a few details to sort now...

Colouring

We're finally nearly there with the plans for planning permission.  I think I had in mind that this stage of the planning would be the simplest, perhaps because the fee for planning permission drawings is much less than that for building regulation approval drawings and construction drawings, as befits the fact that so much more detail is required at the building regs stage.  But so many details have to be thought about now that affect the overall design: details about what heat source we're using for example, along with what kind of chimney or flue it requires, where we want it to be and whether it can use an existing chimney or needs a new one built.  Although this doesn't need to be shown on planning permission drawings (which are concerned primarily with the external appearance of the building, and overall layout) it has to be resolved now - otherwise we may find further down the line that we need to change the layout somewhere, which could affect the external appearance and so require a revision to our application.  In short, planning officers don't need to know how we're providing heating, but they need to know where chimneys will or won't project from the building...  Also, although full building regulations submission comes later (if planning permission is granted) it is essential to make sure planned layout and use of space will comply now, to avoid having to make costly changes to plans later on.